488 EVENING DISCOURSES 
successive failures. ‘Too often they only change their occupation when the 
misfit is so glaring that they are discharged by their employer. And when 
they remain in an unsuitable post, either it may bore them almost insufferably, 
or it may strain them to such a degree that they become ‘nervy,’ unhappy 
and restless, even rebellious against society : indeed an important cause of 
social unrest and even of crime, especially among young people, has with 
good reason been ascribed to an unsuitable occupation. 
It is quite true that only rarely can an ideally suitable occupation be 
found. For very few of us are ‘ pegs ’ which will fit to perfection the “ hole ’ 
of any one occupation : we can do equally and fairly well and we can be 
equally and fairly happy in the work of several different occupations. But it 
is not less true that there is a far larger number of other occupations in which 
we shall do far worse and be far from happy. In point of fact, the expert 
vocational adviser hardly ever limits his recommendations to one particular 
career. He believes, rightly enough, in limited powers of human adaptation ; 
but he insists that while there are certain careers which are to be recom- 
mended to a particular applicant, there are other careers which, owing to 
their unsuitability, should on no account be attempted. 
He insists, too, that in times of vast unemployment it becomes all the more 
important to make the best possible initial choice, when the difficulty of 
finding another post will make the mal-adjusted young person hesitate before 
relinquishing one that proves unsuitable, despite the mental or physical 
strain, boredom, irritation, and dissatisfaction which it provokes. 
But vocational guidance is important not only for the benefit of the person 
who receives it and of those with whom he is brought daily into social 
contact. The adoption of an unsuitable occupation, and its subsequent 
abandonment, mean inevitably a huge national loss—a loss in productive 
efficiency, a waste of effort and material, and a waste of time—in needlessly 
interviewing, training and employing successive unfit applicants until a 
suitable worker is found. 
Moreover, in actual practice, if left to himself, the young person does not, 
as a rule, make a wise choice of a career. It is found, more often than not, 
that he drifts or tumbles by mere chance into an occupation ; and a special 
inquiry among those who have been educated at secondary and public 
schools has shown that about one-half of them intend to take up occupations 
which, on grounds either of ability or of temperament and character, are 
judged unsuitable by the psychologically trained vocational adviser whose 
guidance has proved correct in the vast majority of his cases. Sometimes 
the decision of young people is determined by parental wishes. And too 
often the influence which a parent may be able to exercise in finding for his 
child a position either in his own occupation, or in the business of a relative 
or friend, blinds him to the utter unsuitability of such a career for his boy 
or girl. Or the father may be so ambitious for his son, or the mother may 
play so exclusively for a ‘ safe’ occupation, that again a hopelessly unsuitable 
career is selected for a naturally unadventurous or adventurous youth, as the 
case may be. 
It is, therefore, not surprising that when left to himself, the young person 
appears usually to exercise a rather better choice than when subject merely 
to parental influence. But his own choice is so often wrong because, as 
a rule, he knows nothing, or virtually nothing, of the different requirements 
of occupations for success in them, and because he neither recognises nor 
takes into account sufficiently his own abilities or disabilities. He is guided 
principally by his interests and ideals, and these are apt only too often to 
lead him astray. ‘Thus in a spirit of devotion to humanity a girl may decide 
to take up hospital nursing or school teaching, quite unmindful of her lack 
